Glory Looks Forward

Thursday, August 2, 2012

If
anybody was previously unaware that Chick-Fil-A operated on traditional
Christian principles, the proverbial cat has now left the bag. Facebook and
Twitter have been flooded with traffic on CEO Dan Cathy’s response to an
interviewer for the Baptist Press asking about Cathy’s views on marriage. Cathy
responded that he was “guilty as charged” for supporting a definition of
marriage as being between a man and a woman. He went on:

“I think we are inviting God’s
judgement on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, ‘We know better
than you as to what constitutes a marriage.’ I pray God’s mercy on our
generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have
the audacity to define what marriage is about...We are very much supportive of
the family--the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned
business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give
God thanks for that...We want to do anything we possibly can to strengthen
families. We are very much committed to that...We need to be more faithful to
depend on a God who does love us and wants to have a relationship with us, and
wants to give us the desires of our hearts...we intend to stay the course. We
know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in
a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles.”

Predictably, gay-rights advocates
mobilized to lobby against this bigoted, outdated Bible-thumping
fundamentalist. The response has been swift and fierce, sending a clear message
that if a person holds a traditional Christian definition of marriage and
voices this opinion publicly, there will be hell to pay.

Governor
Mike Huckabee, incensed by vitriolic attacks on Cathy, responded by rallying
conservatives to participate in Chick-Fil-A appreciation day--not in the first
instance as a defense of traditional marriage, but in defense of free speech.
Many Christians, despite mounting social pressure to “not judge” and concede
the integrity of homosexual lifestyles, have also reacted by vocalizing support
for Chick-Fil-A. Rev. Billy Graham was one such participant. But Christian
conservatives are realizing that to stand against the moral zeitgeist of our
age does not come without cost. Character defamation is commonplace (being
called a “bigot,” a “homophobe,” a “gay-hater,” and unless we get with the
program, society and the public square will simply leave us behind.)

Commentators
defending the homosexual community have fired back with a two-pronged approach:
they have a) promoted a same-sex kiss-in on August 3rd, and they b) clarify
that the free speech protection of the First Amendment is rightly interpreted
as a protection from government--not
individuals or their respective interest groups. While the left of course
grants that conservatives have a right to their own opinion, they say, that
opinion is not free from scrutiny. The boycotts of Chick-Fil-A, according to
the left, are private individuals and groups voicing disagreement with Cathy’s
views, rendering the “free speech” cry of conservatives a moot point. Bottom
line: When you take a political stance on a hot-button issue, you’re going to
lose some customers.

And
yet, the mayors of Boston and Chicago (Thomas Menino and Rahm Emanuel, respectively)
have rebuked Chick-Fil-A by asking them not to expand the chain in their
cities, threatening to block them from obtaining building permits. They justify
this action by making a distinction between the liberties enjoyed by churches
(nobody in Boston or Chicago is trying to shut churches down yet) and the
speech of businesses. Since Chick-Fil-A restaurants are not places of worship,
the argument goes, they are not similarly protected by the First Amendment
“free exercise” clause. A business owner has the right to her own private
beliefs, but government officials, under anti-discrimination laws, have the
power to curb how those beliefs are expressed.[1]

In response to
critics and countless charges of being an anti-gay bigot, Cathy sought to set
the record straight:

“We’re not anti-anybody. Our
mission is to create raving fans. While my family and I believe in the Biblical
definition of marriage, we love and respect anyone who disagrees.”

But it was too
late. The damage had been done, and Cathy’s clarification was either
unreported, ignored, or fell on deaf ears.

Yikes. I hardly
know where to begin... How should we respond?

First, it is
helpful to say how we should not
respond. We should not overstate our case by crying foul over boycotts against
Chick-Fil-A. Even if this particular boycott is counterproductive and
rhetorically dangerous (I’ll come back to this), boycotting, too, is a
legitimate and important form of free speech. Moreover, we should not patronize
liberals who choose not to eat at Chick-Fil-A. If eating there offends your
conscience, don’t do it.

Second, we must
not respond in kind with hurtful words or stereotypes. Name-calling is a form
of bullying, and Christians call Lord the man who willingly suffered his
(un)fair share of it. Unless we are engaged in a just war for love’s sake, we
must not respond with violence in word or deed. Vengeance is finally the Lord’s
alone.

We should remind ourselves of the violence that the homosexual
community has endured in the face of real hatred. Bullied homosexual teen
suicide rates are startling and tragic; “gay” is still commonly used as a
negative epithet (i.e., “That’s gay” / ”He/she’s gay”). And for the last time,
God does not “hate fags.” (I cringe to even type the words.) God hates sin. So
should we. But some on the right sloppily use the word “fag” in a derogatory
manner to refer to the whole of a person--a person made in the image of God for
whom Jesus gave His life out of love and in obedience to His Father’s will. God
hates homosexuality just as much as He hates heterosexual promiscuity, adultery
and divorce. He loves all sinners, and to my deep regret, too many Christians
bemoan homosexuality and homosexual marriage as if we ourselves are home and
dry. We are not. True, homosexuality is a point of contention that is raised to
us more often than we raise it ourselves. True, homosexual marriage has
captured the national stage in ways that divorce has not in decades. (Maybe it
should again.) True, we are often wrongly slandered as hate-mongerers--a charge
that rocks us to our core precisely because we seek to love like Jesus with
every ounce of our soul. True, we should stand for the righteousness that
exalts a nation. But we must never speak out of a condescension that says we’ve
earned our moral high ground. We
were comforted by grace--unmerited favor--and in commending this grace to
others, we are merely beggars telling other beggars where there’s bread;
unprofitable servants at best.

It is not enough
to merely consider one’s choice of words. As users of rhetoric, we are also
largely responsible for considering how our words will be heard and
understood. I understand that many of my
Christian conservative counterparts feel squeezed by the constraints of
political correctness, but we must understand that careful word choice is not
about being PC so much as it’s about being properly understood. Don’t we want
to share the Gospel in ways that our culture can understand? So we remind
ourselves of Paul’s flexibility in 1 Corinthians 9--it is a
flexibility of the messenger--not the message.

On the other hand...

1) The protection of free
speech is a legitimate concern.

Ross
Douthat has helpfullypointedout that the words “free exercise” of the
First Amendment include but are not limited to “freedom of belief” and “freedom of worship.” Doubtless “belief” and
“worship” are in view, but these terms are not interchangeable with “free
exercise.” The distinction is not frivolous, since “free exercise” extends
beyond privately held beliefs or parish walls. Followers of Christ understand
that our trust in Him defines who we are--it is not something squeezed to the
periphery of our schedules on weekends.[2]
When you object to believers reasoning from their religious traditions in the
public square, you are claiming (by whose authority?) that the cost of entry
into public discourse is the abandonment of our core identities. Such a cost is
too high and, despite secular rejoinders, is finally unnecessary.[3]

This
alleged distinction between freedom of worship and free exercise is the fallacy
on which Emanuel and Menino’s argument turns. To their minds, they’re not
restricting free exercise of religion, because religious exercise is something
that happens exclusively at church,[4]
which they concede they must allow. To them, biblically faithful engagement
within the public square isn’t
worship--it’s unwelcome bigotry. The rights afforded to churches, then, are not
similarly afforded to individuals whose faith permeates our public identities;
our employment, our politics, our ethics, our discourse. Once we allow the
Bible to shape those, we’re
intolerant. This is sounding more and more like a strained argument. The irony is that Christians found in hypocrisy are ridiculed for not aligning public and private identities--we say one thing publicly but live another way privately. But now, when we seek public/private alignment, we are ridiculed for that as well.

The ethos of
Chick-Fil-A is an expression of biblical Christian principles. To penalize an
organization on the basis of its CEO’s religious views but not similarly penalize churches would effectively
establish buildings of worship as free speech “safe zones.” Is this really the
America we want to live in? I doubt it. The fact that Menino and Emanuel even
seek such power is more indicative of a desire to silence and exclude those
with whom they disagree then it is to preserve genuine tolerance. Perhaps for
once the bigotry is coming from the other side.

Under
current discrimination laws, this is an open-and-shut case. The law would only
criminalize Dan Cathy if he a) refused to hire homosexuals on the basis of
sexual orientation, or b) refused to serve homosexuals on the basis of sexual
orientation. Neither case is in sight. Adam Schwartz, senior attorney for the
ACLU, notes:

“The government can regulate
discrimination in employment or against customers, but what the government
cannot do is punish someone for their words. When an alderman (a local zoning
official) refuses to allow a business to open because its owner has expressed a
viewpoint the government disagrees with, the government is practicing viewpoint
discrimination.”

Yet,
the shift in America is, I believe, moving in that direction. Today’s moral
zeitgeist eventually shapes tomorrow’s Supreme Court precedent, and although it
may seem like whining, there seems to be a particular intolerance of historic,
confessional Christianity. Quite apart from international martyrdom (such as
the persecutions in North India, the 2 million dead in Southern Sudan, the
8,500 killed in the last four years in Indonesia, or the pastors who quietly
disappear in Iran almost monthly), the spirit of such outbreaks are subtly
blowing on our shores. Lawsuits are brought against Christian organizations
daily--the Menino/Emanuel gaff was a drop in the bucket of discrimination
complaints brought against Christians (including, but not limited to: Boy
Scouts of America, Christian campus groups who don’t allow practicing
homosexuals, atheists or Muslims to engage in leadership positions [Vanderbilt
is only the most recent in a slew of such cases], Churches ousted from renting
public places, Christian adoption agencies forced to close down because they do
not condone homosexual parents adopting children, Christian hospitals and
schools forced to cover Plan-B and other abortifacients, pastors forced to
proceed over homosexual marriages, etc.) And these are merely cases brought on
paper. For now, Christians seem to be winning most of these cases, but the
frequency with which they are brought points to a shifting trend in how we as a
nation understand religious liberty.

And these are
just court cases--they’re “on paper” and say nothing of, for example, “artwork”
like Pisschrist, the virgin Mary coming out of a vagina, Mary encased in a
condom, a portrait of the Archangel Gabriel handing Mary a coat hanger for an
abortion, or artwork aside, pop-culture guru Perez Hilton’s astounding remarks
about Carrie Prejean, among countless others (I could offer quite a list of
examples). Do not misunderstand me--I am not suggesting that such speech be
censored. I simply wonder a) At what point
will we see anti-discrimination laws trump religious liberties, as more and
more people believe they are increasingly in tension, and (I’m going to stick
my neck out here) b) What would happen if the left played as loose and fast
with Muslim or Jewish figures and symbols? (Recall the Danish cartoon incident
depicting the prophet Muhammad, which saw its author receiving multiple death
threats.) Provided Christian conservatives are being bashed, few are excited
enough to notice, and if they do object, they’re quietly ignored with a
dismissive wave.[5]

Lest
my gripe take center stage, suffice it to say that religious expression is
being threatened by rhetoric used to bully Christian conservatives out of
the public square, even if that rhetoric
has not yet filtered down into the interpretation of our laws. The free speech
outcry from the right is a reaction against rhetorical bullying. I will address
this more below, but it’s terribly difficult for someone in favor of
traditional marriage to voice her or his opinion on the matter without being
labeled a hate-filled bigot. It used to be that this sort of name-calling was
handled by tenured academics or shock-entertainment media pundits. Now, it is
simply assumed to be a mark of journalistic integrity, “calling it like it is,”
and the name-calling has taken on new life behind the safety of keyboards,
illusive screen names, and social media. The left attacks the person while the right is busy attacking the position. I’ll come back to that point--it’s the heart of
this piece.

2) Boycotts, though important
forms of expression, are trending towards overuse.

The
intentionally unnamed “protester” was dubbed the New York Times’ 2011 Person of
the Year for a reason. With the onset of the Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street,
mass demonstrations broadcast from the Middle East, relatively frequent
uprisings in Greece and similar youth uprisings in the Eurozone, protesting is
back en vogue. This is not by itself a
good or bad thing. After all, protests can be hate-filled (KKK rallies in
Skokie, IL) or necessary--especially in civil disobedience (i.e., the Civil
Rights Movement, protesting colonial imperialism, etc.)

To
be clear, boycotting organizations can be a perfectly legitimate way of having
a positive impact on society. But if boycotts or protesters adopt voices where
vitriol is normative and civil, thoughtful discourse takes a backseat to
rhetorical hostility, then it ought to be for extremely good reason and even
rarer in circumstance.

Jonathan
Merritt, in his article on boycotts and Chick-Fil-A, hits the
nail on the head:

“On both sides of our latest
culture war divide, we must learn to have level-headed disagreements without
resorting to accusations of hate speech and boycotts. As Josh Ozersky argued on
TIME Thursday, ‘businesses should be judged by their products and their
practices, not by their politics.’ ”

Certainly boycotts against business can in some instances
be warranted. After all, one's politics influence one's practices, and
consumers' reactions to this can be a good and healthy thing. And, if
Chick-Fil-A were treating homosexual customers differently, or offering
different people different products, or acting discriminatory in their
transactions, I'd be right there with the boycotters against Chick-Fil-A.

But that's simply not what's happening. Rather than
boycotting immoral business practice, we're boycotting the company CEO's
political/religious stance. Again I insist, a CEO's stance can affect how their
business operates. But with Chick-Fil-A, as far as I am aware, they have an
astounding customer service track record and treat all customers equally by
offering everyone the same good old chicken sandwich. They are hardly a poster
child for discrimination.

People will weigh issues that are important to them
differently. For some people, they'll drive the extra mile past Wal-mart to buy
a product made in America, or pay the extra dollar for organic produce. Others
will drive past Chick-Fil-A and opt for Burger King instead. Everyone must make their own purchasing choices. If a person is terribly
offended by the CEO of Chick-Fil-A's stance for a Biblical definition of
marriage, that person is perfectly in their rights to boycott the restaurant
and not shop there for food.

But what Merritt is getting at is this: the fact that we
so constantly feel the need to demonize those with whom we disagree with
accusations of hate speech or threats of boycotts is evidence of our
impoverishment in moral discourse. We can only use the language of
"hate-filled, homophobic bigots" who stand against "our rights"--words
so often thrown around without asking tough questions about what those words
really mean (Where do they come from? Why do we have them? By whose authority
are they secured?). Calling people bigots for their stance on gay marriage has
powerful impact in the hearts and minds of the people, and I fear this
negativity aimed at persons rather than positions is becoming commonplace. The
result is that political division is sharper and harsher--we assume the worst
in those with whom we disagree, which in turn undermines civil discourse.

Merritt's point is to underscore this cycle and challenge
it.

I insist again--if a business is engaging in immoral practice, there is an important place for boycotts and the
language of evil. But that's not what we're dealing with--we're dealing with
different religious perspectives and different political views that, as far as
I can tell, have not impacted Chick-Fil-A's customer service. Pushed to its
logical limit, we would probably have to stop shopping with at least half of
the companies where we get our goods if we insist that the CEO's of the
companies we buy from share our political/religious views. That's fine if a
person wants to research who their local dry cleaners’ CEO supports. But I'm
not sure that it's always the most helpful first recourse.

Of course, there
are liberal versions of company donations to causes I may not agree with. Starbucks largely supports liberal causes. Microsoft,
one of the wealthiest companies in the world, supports the most liberal news station
in America. This won't stop me from buying a PC for $200 if the competitor from
Apple is $1,000. I may disagree with their political contributions, but I'm not
prepared to demonize people or organizations for this. If Starbucks makes good
lates, they make good lates. Despite their vocal support for same-sex marriage,
I just can’t get around the fact that Oreo simply makes the best cookie in the
world.

On the other hand, suppose Microsoft started using slave
labor--we would have a very different argument on our hands. But as it stands,
I could buy a PC and not boycott Microsoft just because the organization
supports pro-choice candidates. I enjoy my Oreo cookie without a guilty
conscience (unless I eat more than two).

Pushed to its logical limit, we'd have to investigate the
beliefs of every CEO we buy from. I find this mildly silly, as it imposes an
intolerable burden on the conscience of consumers.

I suppose what the left is protesting, then, are
Chick-Fil-A’s donations to “anti-gay” groups that “promote hatred and bigotry.”
Of course, nobody denies that the institutions Chick-Fil-A has donated to have
been Christian organizations trying to stand on Biblical principles. This has
never been secret, even before Cathy's comments. The question is, isn't that
Chick-Fil-A's right? Should we be looking to silence them? You may disagree
with who they give funding to, and you may choose not to eat there in
disapproval. We choose our battles, of course, and for the left, this is
clearly a battle to be chosen (on par with Civil Rights issues). But understand
at the same time that good people on both sides can disagree about the ethics
of the federal government blessing homosexual unions as "marriage," [6] as well as the prospect of “gay rights” being today’s
Civil Rights movement.[7]

More to the point: The groups to whom Chick-Fil-A donates
are not "anti-gay hate groups." Some of them are pro
traditional family groups, but there are many Christian organizations to which
the restaurant donates that, as Merritt's article points out, fund good causes:
foster care, high school programs, after school care, kids camps, and
scholarships for employees to go to college who otherwise couldn't afford it.
Personally, I would include funding pro-traditional family causes in the "good"
category, but that's not the point. If we are trying to force Chick into a
place where they should not donate freely according to their Christian
convictions, understand that these other donations, too, would go out the
window. To Cathy, these donations are (all) natural outworkings of Christian
faith, and I tend to agree with him. So, when we say Chick-Fil-A funds hate
groups that promote bigotry, I find we are painting with far too broad a brush.
Nor do I accept that these groups promote "bigotry"--even the pro
"traditional Biblical model for family" groups--because that would
assume intolerance. These are not
intolerant groups just because they disagree with particular lifestyle or
behavioral patterns.

I suspect that last statement will be the most contentious.
Questioning contemporary notions of tolerance is incredibly
taboo--rude--lacking in good taste. So here we go.

3) We must expose faulty
premises in contemporary definitions of “tolerance.”

Dr.
D.A. Carson has written eloquently on the subject in his little book The
Intolerance of Tolerance. By all means, pokeituponAmazon--this point is by extension.

What
is tolerance? What is a bigot? Christian conservatives are commonly called
“intolerant bigots” when we voice our beliefs in favor of biblical marriage,
family structures, salvation through Christ alone, etc. Calling someone an
“intolerant bigot” is a powerful charge. A bigot is “a person who is intolerant of differing beliefs, creeds or opinions.” In other
words, one’s definition of “bigot” is intrinsically tied to one’s definition of
tolerance/intolerance.

But tolerance
has been so redefined (for reasons that I do not have time to go into here, but
that Dr. Carson lays out thoroughly in his earlierwork on epistemology) that today it means
something like this: “You must not say that someone else is wrong/living
wrongly. If you say someone is wrong/living wrongly, you’re intolerant.”

Contrast an
older definition of tolerance, best articulated by Voltaire: “I may disagree
with what you say, but I will defend your right to say it.” Notice the subtle
but crucial difference between the two definitions--in contemporary tolerance,
we are tolerant not of individuals--we
are tolerant of all positions.
Under Voltaire’s definition, I might object that what you’re saying is wrong,
stupid, corrupt, or ignorant, and yet, I insist on your (the individual’s) right to speak. The tolerance is
aimed at all persons, while there
is ample room remaining for robust disagreement. Under this classical
definition of tolerance, you can defend almost anybody saying almost anything
in the public square.

But because we
so unquestioningly embrace the new tolerance and have only the remnant of a
tolerance for the individual, we are comfortable with such powerful language
demonizing a man like Cathy with whom we disagree. The attacks are on Cathy’s
person--he is “a bigot, an anti-gay
fundamentalist, a homophobe, gay-hater, etc.” Recall Cathy’s response to the
criticism he received: “We’re not anti-anybody...While my family and I believe
in the Biblical definition of marriage, we love and respect anyone who
disagrees.” Cathy disagrees with the views but respects the individuals.

Conservatives,
on the other hand, are typically still functioning with an old definition of
tolerance. The majority of us get confused and feel hurt/wrongly slandered when
we’re called homophobic gay-haters. We’re busy saying things like, “Wait...but
I don’t hate/fear gay people...I love the homosexual community and I don’t wish
them any harm. I simply disagree with them on gay marriage and consider
premarital sexual expression to be morally suspect.” [8]
So both parties feel hurt and both parties wind up talking past one another.

I find it deeply
unfortunate that many who read this post will have no other means of processing
these points other than to dismiss them as hatred. This is anecdotal, and I
certainly can’t prove it, but “hatred” or “fear” are simply not what I feel in
my heart towards anyone I disagree with. While I may seek passionately to
persuade others, I must never force my beliefs on anyone, or coerce with
deception. If I say that “I believe such-and-such an action is morally wrong,”
I am, in response, met with character charges--I am “full of hatred” or
“homophobic.” Why? Because at the end of the day, we believe so deeply that
nobody deserves to be offended, or to have their moral and sexual freedom
challenged.

What is a bigot?
A bigot is a person who seeks to silence others because they find contrary
opinions too objectionable--they are
intolerant (old definition) of others’ beliefs, opinions, or creeds. So I ask:
Who is trying to silence whom? Who is really a bigot?

Epilogue: Compromise and Ways
Forward

This post is not intended to be a forum on the legitimacy
of homosexual marriage. I’m happy to discuss it, but my aim here is to question
the rhetoric used by the left, especially in light of the most recent
Chick-Fil-A mess. But, I suspect that as you’re reading this, if you’re a
supporter of same-sex marriage, or if you identify as homosexual, you may be
more interested in discussing the case for homosexual marriage than the nuances
of rhetoric. Of course, careful, thoughtful, engaging, loving conversation will
eventually take the conversation there anyway. If that’s the case, even while
I’m not going to address the matter in this post with the time and care it deserves, perhaps we
could find some preliminary common ground and compromise, in the name of
progressive civil discourse.

Perhaps the libertarian argument (and I'm not a
libertarian, by the way) could offer such a compromise. When the founding
fathers laid out their plans for how the country would work, they envisioned a
multiplicity of state and local governments acting as laboratories of sorts,
trying out different paths and allowing people to move freely from state to
state according to how they personally believe. I would concede, as compromise,
allowing states to vote according to how their people decide the state should
define homosexual unions. I would choose to live in a state that did not
recognize such unions, but others would be at liberty to live in a state that
did.

This is what conservatives mean when you hear them say
that same-sex marriage views are being "forced" on them--they are
forced to legally recognize unions as marriage in a way that offends the
individual's conscience. (And it gets worse--very soon, I do believe we'll see
lawsuits against Pastors and Priests who cannot, in accordance with Scripture
or in good conscience, wed a homosexual couple. What a terrible breach of
liberty!) What two people do in the privacy of their bedrooms is none of the
government's business, but I'm not sure it should be in the business of
blessing such acts, either. Suppose you reject this proposed compromise on the
basis of "universal human rights." Fine, but allow for disagreement.
(Again, one might well ask where such rights come from, or on whose authority
they are guaranteed.)

Here is another possible "bipartisan" way
forward: For whatever couples (homosexual or heterosexual) that the government
decides to offer certain tax benefits to, define them all as "civil
unions" and leave the institution of "marriage" strictly to the
Church. As a private institution, they can define "marriage" as they
please--it could count as one form of "civil unions," and the
government can maintain "civil unions" outside of the Church. In
other words, get the government out of defining "marriage" all
together. Now, I'm not totally comfortable with either of these paths, but
that's what compromises are, right?

[1] To be fair, not all liberals have taken their
Chick-Fil-A boycott so far. In fact, many liberals have rightly come to
Chick-Fil-A’s defense and reprimanded Menino and Emanuel for abusing their
power. The ACLU--no friend to the evangelical community--has defended Chick’s
right to obtain building permits despite its position on gay marriage. After
all, if businesses can be blocked because of their objection to gay marriage,
they can similarly be blocked for their support as well. We rightly identify a
slippery slope in blocking businesses from opening because of the views of
business owners. Think of it this way: Supposing the CEO of Wendy’s restaurants
had disclosed his donations to pro-choice organizations--should a conservative
mayor have the power to deny Wendy’s restaurants building permits on the
grounds that she believes her city is predominantly pro-life?

[2] Christian conservatives are often ostracised in the
media and academia for claiming that secularization is undermining religious
liberties. Liberals typically dismiss this as myth-making, since we are in many
ways becoming, they say, more religious--churches are still extant, some are
growing in number, and most Americans still believe in some sort of God. The
number of Americans who reject evolution yet believe in hell, they say, is
staggering. But this is a misunderstanding of what conservatives mean by
secularization. We speak of secularization, not as the abolition of religion but as the marginalization of religion; the exclusively privatized religion. That Christians even need to clarify this
point is itself indicative of the trend towards privatization.

[3] What did MLK Jr. say? Did he say, “If everybody would
only reason from secular places, we’d be a lot better off”? No, he said just
the opposite: he exhorted us to get closer to, more in touch with, our
commitment to Christ. Was the Jewish community thereby excluded? Hardly. He
called on everyone to similarly get in touch with the resources available in
their faith communities and bring them into the public square. Helpful in
thinking through the pragmatism of merging faith-based rationale with the
public square during the Civil Rights movement has been Chappell’sanalysis.

[4] I speak primarily of Christianity because that’s my
frame of reference, but I welcome Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and
naturalists as comrades in the public square, equally able to reason from their
faith (or no faith) communities, provided our legislative conclusions finally sit under the Constitution.

[5] I am not suggesting that other groups are not discriminated against. I can only imagine what
loneliness a Muslim must feel when they’re walking through an airport. I can
only imagine the struggling conscience of a young Sikh asked to remove his
turban at school. For me, here, I’m simply saying that religious minority
groups do not have a monopoly on discrimination. Moreover, in the public eye,
there is a fundamental difference with respect to how such violence is reported
to and read by the public. Violence against Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and Jews is
easily and commonly lamented--recognizably indefensible, save fringe bloggers
and commentators whom almost nobody takes seriously anyway. Hatred and
rhetorical violence against Christians, however, is particularly sinister,
since, even while it is not as typically coupled with physical violence,
nevertheless basks in the glow of public approval.

[6]Whether
or not they should be in the business of blessing any union as marriage, or whether this is
the exclusive prerogative of the Church, is another can of worms that I'll let
pass.

[7] There have been, for example, very vocal
African-American Christians who not only support the biblical definition of
marriage, but are incensedbytheparallelsdrawn between the gay rights movement and the Civil Rights movement.

[8] The left, of course, argues back by simply saying
that if heterosexual couples can get married but homosexual couples are denied
the same right, it’s simply not fair and people are not being treated equally.
To them, it is quite obviously a form of discrimination. I will not take the
time to respond to this point here, since this post is not really about
same-sex marriage. But it is important for my conservative counterparts to hear
and feel the weight of this objection.

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Equally helpful might be to clarify the title of this blog, “Glory Looks Forward.” There are two angles to the title as I understand it—one political and the other Biblical.

Little has been made of the rhetorical shift by liberals who proudly refer to themselves as “progressive”—they represent “progress”; looking forward rather than backward. To me, the change seemed rather abrupt—I woke up one morning and suddenly, the left was ditching the term “liberal” and opting instead for the term “progressive.” (I was a bit behind the ball on that one.) For some time, the word “liberal” meant freedom and was tied, interestingly, to contemporary libertarian market principles—thus “liberal” markets referred to capitalist, free-market economies. “Liberal” as “freedom,” in some ways, became an all-encompassing category. One thinks of the 1960s and 70s when counter-cultural cries for “freedom” were tied to drug legalization, the removal of social sexual taboos, and other works of the devil that stuffy, religious, hardened, war-torn old fashioned folks didn’t like, including The Beatles and later, Disco. (That was tongue-in-cheek, by the way.)

The word also meant “generous”—thus liberals were those who gave of themselves to help others. It came to be a very happy term for how democrats thought of themselves (and still do), and contrasted nicely with the caricature that was painted of republicans (sometimes deserving, sometimes not), where republicans are those who are greedy and wanting to cut taxes in order to keep money for themselves. Thus the root word of “conservative” is “conserve” or to save. By and large, conservatives represent that which is “traditional” (whatever that means) and are thought by liberals (sometimes rightly, I’m afraid) to be deeply reactionary—the party of “no” that is bigoted, old-fashioned, and out to rain on anybody’s parade who wants any fashion of equality. On the whole, 20thcentury conservatives do not have a history of rhetorical tact.

Yet here I am, as a conservative, finding myself largely in agreement with the principle of progress. Do not misunderstand—I wholeheartedly believe that we have much to learn from the past (“Study history, study history!”). But when we say we miss “old America” or “the way things used to be,” we’re probably talking about either the late 19thcentury or 1950s America (the former for freer markets, the latter for moral social consciousness). But consider how this sounds to, say, a black person, for whom neither time really represents much to get enthusiastic about. I watched an interesting YouTube video of a conservative at an Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protest, touting how much better off we would be if we would just go back to the late 19thcentury. What he meant was that he wanted less regulation and freer markets. Fair enough. A black man holding a camera in the background, not missing a beat, responded: “Better for who? Not for us!” Some people believe (wrongly, in my view) that capital markets are intrinsically racist, intrinsically favorable to white males, precisely because this, they argue, is what history shows—that white male hegemony cannot be separated from free market capitalism.

So what do conservatives need? We need to look forward, because a 19th century-esque economic policy or a 1950’s-esque moral social consciousness will look very different when laid over the context of 2012’s plausibility structures. We need new ways, forward-looking ways, of articulating truth that is not fundamentally reactionary. Republicans must not be the party of “No, you may not have that abortion,” or “No, you may not take my money and give it to the poor” or “No, you may not marry”—we must be the party of “Yes, we cherish the sanctity of human life,” “Yes, we believe in freedom and prosperity and see businesses as partners in the alleviation of poverty,” “Yes, we treasure marriage,” all the while granting the legitimacy of liberal concerns (that women’s bodies have historically been made subject to the wills of men; that we do love the poor; that we do empathize with and love those in the LGBTQ community and stand against bullying and hurtful stereotypes). These statements are not mutually exclusive to Christianity, capitalism, conservatism, or the rule of law—they’re simply said differently and, truth be told, as far as Christianity is concerned, they are said more consistently.[1]That does not mean that we duck truth, or are ashamed in any way to speak it. Abortion is wrong. Socialism, though well intended, creates moral hazard. The state ought not force churches to wed homosexual couples against the conscience of the pastor/elders, or in any way that is contradictory to scripture. But when we say only these things, to the ears of the public, we’re merely beating the Bible or the Wealth of Nations like war drums. When we say these things first, we come off as cold and not understanding the plight of others.

Thus, with the title of this blog, I hope to create space for some rhetorical redemption, and to encourage all to post on this blog as a safe place to interact with ideas firmly but curiously and lovingly. I believe, in efforts to promote the righteousness and welfare of the state, it is to the glory of God that we take our lessons from the past and look forward to how we will apply those lessons in present and future contexts.

More briefly but of central importance is the Biblical angle to the blog’s title. Throughout redemptive history, God’s people, whether in the locus of a state (Israel) or a transnational body (the Church), have and continue to "look forward" to the coming of our Lord. The original covenant was broken through Adam. Even through continued rampant disobedience, God mercifully saved Noah and gave the Noahic covenant. Then, the Lord blessed Abraham as a “father of many nations” from whose house (dynasty, lineage) the Messiah would come. In Jeremiah and elsewhere, God promises a new covenant in which He would write His law on our hearts. We looked forward to the coming of a Messiah who would be both Davidic King and Suffering Servant. That Messiah came—Jesus the Christ—to save us from our sins and God’s inexorable wrath to come. Jesus was crucified, buried, and rose (bodily and spiritually) from the dead, proving that His sacrifice was acceptable to His Father. What Christians yesterday and today look forward to is a new heaven, a new earth and resurrection existence, much like that which Jesus enjoys, unto eternity. But what is key to see in all of this is the covenantal theology—a redemptive-historical reading of the text, where God’s people look forward to His coming; look forward to His glory, such that the Lord is who we take joy in. It is to God’s glory for us to look forward to Jesus’ coming again and to delight in our Lord’s companionship and friendship, living in the presence of our Savior, God and King forever. And with the saints of old we still say, “Come, Lord Jesus, come.”

Soli Deo Gloia.

[1]Some might call this manipulative. But, wouldn't voicing an objection also be manipulative? All discourse is, in some sense, “manipulative” if by "manipulative” we mean it is affirming something that we believe to be true and is thus consciously or subconsciously working to persuade others. Foucault made this point at some length (i.e., All statements are totalizing) and I am inclined to think, at least on this point, that he was right. And yet, that cannot stop us from working to communicate patiently, carefully and accurately with one another. The fact is, some ways of saying things are more loving than others. It is the part of wisdom to know the difference.

Some of you may have noticed that I’ve had this blog up for
some time now, but haven’t bothered, until today, to create a post for it. Part
of the issue was a lack of time. As a Teach For America corps member and a
M.Ed. student, time has been sparse.

Partly, it was an issue of
negotiating how much time to spend on a blog. You can push a long way in
discourse and get absolutely nowhere. It looks like a concession if someone
contradicts a point and the author does not take the time to respond. I’ve seen
my fair share of internet debates, and one wonders how many folks on any side
are willing to be persuaded. I might get a few “likes” from those who already
agree with me, but in those rare instances when someone has actually let their
guard down, it hasn’t been for linear apologetic—it’s been for relational
investment. (Life lesson: Sometimes, it’s not enough to have the higher point.)

But really, in our over-stimulated culture of screens, social media and instant
gratification, who has the time for thorough analysis? We live in a “soundbite
culture”—not just clips of politicians doctored by news outlets and media
pundits for cheap, not-so-nuanced jabs (Twitter maxes out at 140 characters,
and that’s where we’re having debates about Obamacare? Really?), but the very
manner in which we reflect shifts to a satisfaction with shallow answers that
sound loving. (Who is against “healthcare for all Americans,” “a woman’s right
to choose” or “equal rights” in marriage, education, or any other domain?) My
personal experience at the street level has been that we are not, by and large,
conscious consumers of rhetoric.

The democratization of knowledge has been in many respects a fantastic thing (more information at our fingertips faster), but can
also reinforce barriers to open-mindedness. After all, if I’m losing an
internet debate, couldn’t I just Google the answers that support my point? (I
speak as a guy who has shamefully partaken in such behavior!) Additionally,
more information online certainly means more faulty information—more junk to
sift through.[1] It
can be really embarrassing to admit that we have our facts wrong. So, we
usually don’t. (Yes, I’ve done that before, too. Pride is an ugly thing—Lord,
help my unbelief.)

Undoubtedly, part of my hesitancy
was the utter transparency that comes with posting anything online.
I have much to learn, and it’s likely I’ll look back on early posts in coming
years and ask, “What was I thinking?”
There’s that pride thing again.

And yet, as summer unfolds anew, I
have the time on my hands to work out my own thoughts in writing on a variety
of issues, and hope to be sharpened by the pushback of others. I’ve completed
my M.Ed., and though I’ll be pursuing a M.Div. next, I’m willing to bet that a
blog will be a fitting tool to compliment the literature I’m sure to be buried
in by merciless but devoted professors. I also hope to learn how to strike a
balance between which posts I respond to and which I do not; the sooner I learn
to choose my battles, the better.

It’d be disingenuous of me if I
failed to mention certain key motivators, such as the current landscapes in
theology, philosophy and political thought. On the theological front, Reformed
Scholasticism is making a comeback in the Western church (praise God) through
the popularized works of Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll, John Piper, Mark Dever, and
even D.A. Carson (who I must confess to be my favorite living NT scholar). This
is an exciting time to be a "young person" preparing for the ministry—more
pastors earning PhD’s, a resurgence in desire for Biblical faithfulness,
greater interaction with rather than withdrawal from culture, etc. Do not
misunderstand—these are not by themselves marks of the Western church’s success
(still less our faithfulness)—there is much work still to be done. And yet, we
must not lose sight of the blessings we enjoy just because we enjoy them
against the backdrop of cultural hostility towards Christians. There is much
for which we owe thanks to God.

On the philosophical front, I’m
finding more and more utilitarian thinkers (whether or not they call themselves
that) who want everyone to be as happy as possible without asking tough moral questions.[2] Philosophical
naturalism (or atheism, whichever you prefer) is also gaining steam in the
public arena thanks, in part, to the “new atheist” movement (headed by Dawkins,
Harris and the late Hitchens). Very little about this movement is
philosophically new—our contemporary context and cultural location merely add
fresh shades of grey to tired arguments. What is new, as Tim Keller has helpfully
pointed out, is the tone of the new atheists—more aggressive, “anti-theistic.”
There have been many helpful Christian contributions on this front, but few of
them gain treading at the popular level.

The political sphere is ripe for
fresh debate once again with the SCOTUS’ more-or-less full approval of the
Affordable Care Act (ACA; “Obamacare”). When asked why I refuse to get into politics
professionally, I give a simple answer: As one who hopes to herald the Gospel,
I do not want to tie my flag (publicly) too tightly to either the right or
the left, lest the message be rendered mute by those whose political ideology differs
from my own. Figure out what to do with Jesus—then, we’ll talk politics. After
all, the political perspectives I hold are merely what I believe to be an
outworking of my faith in Christ. That doesn’t mean I’m always right or that I
have it all sorted out—I have plenty of crafty friends who lovingly, if not
cheerfully, point out inconsistencies in my beliefs. It does mean that I would
not expect those who do not share my faith in Christ to also share my political
viewpoints. If they do, that’s great, but the Christian who holds (what I might
call) inconsistent political opinions is a greater ally than a conservative
atheist. I would call both the closest of friends, but only one my brother.

I find myself sorely tempted to
inject my two cents into political debates, and from a pastoral perspective, do
so more often than is probably healthy. And yet, just as the abuse of the Bible
(through hypocrisy, legalism or condescending judgmentalism) is more frequently
the cause of public disillusionment with Christianity than authenticity in
faithfulness, so too is the abuse of conservatism. Many conservatives
articulate a certain standard and often fail to meet that standard, or hinge
their platforms on unwinnable axioms.[3] I
would venture a guess that liberals often feel the same way about their
candidates and policies. On both fronts for authenticity’s sake, Biblical and
political, I know that I have fallen short countless times and continue to do
so daily. But I hope to pray, grow, mature, read, learn, and progress as best I
can with what years I have left. Political influence, from a Christian
perspective, must never be sought for its own sake, but always as a means to an
end, to first allow freedom for the articulation of the Gospel and next to
bring justice as faithfully as we can in a fallen world. And so, I will attempt to move forward
in political discourse carefully, hopefully without too many red-flag labels,
because righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people
(Prov. 14:34).

[1]
For my more postmodern friends eagerly waiting to ask “Which knowledge counts
as true knowledge and who decides?” I beg your patience—we’ll try to tackle
some of those issues later. Although, one does feel that postmodern
epistemology is a horse that has been flogged half to death.

[2]
Nothing scientific about these observations—they’re merely anecdotal. I’ve been
referred to Samuel Harris’ TED talk more times than I can count. I’m guessing
that as time goes on, social contract theory will become more popular. Shelly
Kagan, for example, defends SCT rigorously.

[3]
For example, arguing against the ACA on the grounds that it raises taxes when
the majority of the public believes that the act saves the lives of
the poor is foolish and terribly frustrating to watch. As relevant and urgent as
the objection against higher taxes is (including ACA’s impact on small business
owners and skyrocketing healthcare costs), at the popular level, the left has
defined the terms of the debate as “money vs. lives,” which makes conservatives
sound cold, dispassionate and heartless—exactly what many liberals already
believe us to be. You might say, "Yes, but higher taxes bring about the morally reprehensible scenarios we're trying to avoid." I agree. But that's not what the public hears. They hear "Let me keep all of my money because I don't want to pay to save someone's life." Historical amnesia is very real, and as such, we need to make
the moral case for free markets for a
new generation.